When the score in this game was tied at four, at the end of five innings, I liked the Yankees chances in the contest. But, New York made the mistake of giving Boston’s Mike Lowell a pitch down-and-in, for the second time, and Lowell did what he does with that ball at Fenway…he hit it over the wall (and it cost the Yankees the game). Still, even with that mistake, it took a great play by the Sox’ Pedroia in the 8th inning to save the game for Boston today…as without his diving grab to end that frame, the two teams would still be playing (and I would not be writing this now).

I feel for Chase Wright…becoming the first left-handed pitcher in the history of the game to allow four taters in a row…and only the second pitcher ever to do it (joining Paul Foytack). Hopefully, it does not leave a mark on the kid.

Speaking of pitchers…the Sox’ Matsuzaka has some tools, no question. But, I was not overly impressed by him tonight…and it’s not because he allowed 6 runs this evening. What was it? Wil Nieves ripping the cover off the ball the first two times he faced Dice-K (albeit for outs). If you’re that great, there’s no way Wil Nieves should ever touch you.

Getting back to the Yankees, they need three games in a row where their starter goes seven innings…and fast. Proctor has only missed five games this year. Pettitte has come out of the bullpen twice already. The entire pen is about to be burnt for the season and it’s not even May yet. If Igawa is ever going to go deep in a game, tomorrow is the time to do it – even if it means keeping him in there if it kills his ERA. It’s reached that point…where some starter has to take one on the chin, if needed, to help save the pen.

i had seen bits and pieces of Matsuzaka in his previous starts, and thought he was better than this. to my pleasant surprise, he pretty much got hammered. a few screaming liners aren’t hit right at infielders and the Yanks put up 9 or 10 runs!

bad news, losing 3 straight, killing the pen

good news, Boston’s best starters aint so good

honestly, each of these games coulda gone either way. the baseball gods just didnt smile on NY this weekend.

“…where some starter has to take one on the chin, if needed, to help save the pen.”

This is fast becoming my mantra. To me, it’s worth letting the second tier guys on the staff (I know, I know: they’re ALL second tier right now) go seven or eight – regardless of the consequences.

If the Yanks lose a few games 10-8 over the next couple of weeks because they kept the Kei Igawas of the world out there to get pounded by the Jonny Gomez’s of the world, so be it. It’s the only thing right now that’ll save this bullpen from ruin.

This wasn’t that bad…besides the ridiculous amount of innings the Yankees bullpen is on pace to throw, which hopefully won’t be as bad when the regular starters come back ….I’m not worried about the Red Sox..they lost 2 games by one run and another by 2 runs so really the games could have gone either way..the Yankees pretty much handled all of the Red Sox starting pitching..I’m not sure the Red Sox starting pitching is any better than the Yankees when healthy…I still think the best pitcher this series was Pettitte…he just got screwed out of the W on Friday..

– Johnny… where was you?
– Abreu didn’t look too good for the majority of this Series. He did work some important walks but he K’d quite a bit as well.
– Should we be worrying about Mo? Just a little bit?
– The Sox Top 3 aren’t very intimidating. If we had Wang, Moose or maybe even Pavano in games 2 and 3 we’d probably have won.
– Matsuzaka doesn’t impress me. I live in Boston and get NESN so I’ve watched all his starts. He has been less and less impressive with each passing outing. He seems to get rattled when runners get on. And like Steve said, Nieves (and even Doug M!) scorched some balls off of him.

Definitely don’t want to hit the panic button as much as Friday night was painful and avoidable.
The cumulative difference between six and seven inning starts is immense. This bullpen, Proctor in particular, will not otherwise survive the season . Torre must make personal gut checks every night and avoid his predictable habit of going to the pen for the 7th. The occassional loss is worth it over the long hall.
Melkey looks pathetic. The bottom three of the lineup is dead weight. Two lefties in Tampa will not be easy. Good news..DiceK looked quite human.

Agree about a starter needing to take one for the team. I am not too bummed about the three losses. One was due to a typical Mo April meltdown, the others due to starting rookies because the big guns are on the DL. (gosh, just how sweet it would have been to have the Worm Killer out pitch Dice-K last night.)

Given the injuries to Prior, Wood, Liriano and now Felix Hernandez, I think the organization is taking the right approach with Hughes. I would much rather see him have a 20 year career than a 2 year and cooked.

I don’t buy this “baby-your-best-young-talent” stuff. You don’t send AA guys to Fenway Park to get bombed. Period. This is Major League Baseball, national TV, prime-time, against the Red Sox. That was a freakin’ embarassment to the New York Yankees last night. I don’t care how you guys want to spin this.

The Cubs could have protected Wood and Prior until they were 25, and both guys still would have been injury-prone. Your either a horse or you’re not a horse. Whitey Ford was 20 years old in 1950 and helped the Yankees win a pennant, and he went on to pitch forever.

They treat these pitchers like china dolls. Hughes is 6’5″ 240 and throws 95 mph. You give him the ball and say “up and in to Papi and nothing around the plate to Manny. Good luck, kid.”

Anyone who thinks Clippard is a big time propsect has no clue. At best, he’s a back of the rotation guy in the AL. Further, my post was in response to the nonsense of bringing him up to pitch in Boston.

As for Hughes, why pick himto ‘dust’ some Bosox batter? No one on the team dares do that. Hit two of the Yankees, four straight HR’s? Big deal say the vets on the team. This has gone on way too long but Torre is to blame for this, clearly this is on Torre. But to want a raw rookie to do it is absurd.

Don–Don’t get me wrong. I agree that the Yanks need to back to Sox hitters off the plate. I was not asking for Hughes to exclusively be that guy. All that I’m saying is that you go with your best and stop messing around with AA guys who are not your best.